The Wish List
by KiwiDaydreamer
Summary: Nearing Christmas, little Althea Stoll only wants one thing for Christmas. Her mother. How is Travis going to keep the Christmas spirit alive for his daughter, and more importantly, how is he going to tell her that Katie's not coming home. Oneshot. AU.


**A/N:** I felt inspired to write a Christmas oneshot about Travis and Althea, after finishing 'The Healing of Travis Stoll.' For those who haven't read the story, I think you can get the idea of what's going on without reading the story first, but you're more than welcome to. Hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

**Disclaimer:** My wish list consists of 'To own Percy Jackson.' For some strange reason, I don't think my wishes will be coming true. *Sigh*

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><p><strong>The Wish List<strong>

It was a rather ordinary December afternoon. The snow had yet to arrive, much to Althea Stoll's distaste, but instead small trickles of rain cascaded down the windows of their small, dingy, yet surprisingly homey apartment. Outside, there was a loud hustle and bustle as frantic Christmas shoppers attempted to buy all their presents before the nearing storm appeared.

Since it was a Saturday, Travis wasn't working and he was glad for the break. His week had been particularly busy, with trying to finish everything before Christmas came. The curly haired young father was seated on their couch, sipping a cup a hot cup of black coffee as he stared out the window. The rather serene moment was ruined when Althea burst into the living room, belting out a Christmas carol.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, Hades smells," Althea sung as she skipped around the small apartment with a pair of small silver bells in her hands. Travis couldn't suppress the smile that appeared on his mouth as he watched his eight year old daughter decorate the Christmas tree. It was a tiny fake tree, not much taller than Travis himself, but it was all they could afford and it was the only size that could fit in their apartment. It didn't matter to Althea as she loved to decorate the thing every single year.

Growing up at Camp Half Blood, Travis had never really had much experience with Christmas or what the traditions were, but he learnt quickly once Althea came. Christmas in the mortal world included Christmas trees decorated in tinsel, baubles and hand-crafted ornaments Althea made at school, buying candy canes and writing letters to some old fat guy.

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><p>It was the tenth of December and the elder Stoll had decided that it was time to put the tree up. Although Travis himself was never much of a Christmas person, the excitement his daughter possessed was infectious and he found himself enjoying decorating the tree. The elder Stoll had helped his daughter to wrap silver and gold tinsel around the small tree and the pair was now busy placing different shaped ornaments of various colors on the tree.<p>

"Dad," Althea began as she placed a sparkly red bauble on the tree with a large, toothy grin. Travis, who was busy untangling a long line of Christmas lights, glanced down at his little girl expectantly.

There were some days where Travis thought that time had gone too fast. Sometimes, he felt as if she was only a tiny baby merely a few days ago and was dependent on Travis for everything. As tiring as those days were, Travis couldn't help but miss them. His little girl was growing up so fast, it was sort of a scary thought.

"Yeah Al?" he replied with an equally large grin.

"Can we write my wish list tonight?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement. Travis let out a little laugh as he dropped the Christmas lights on the couch behind him and picked his daughter up with a quick swoop of his arms. She giggled as he buried his face in her soft brown curls.

"Of course we can," he told her with an impish grin. If it was one thing that Travis loved to do, it was make Christmas wish lists. Like any good child of Hermes should, he enjoyed asking for things, although most of them were far too unrealistic. As he got older, his wishes got more sensible. Instead of writing down a purple and orange speckled Pegasus, he wanted a new car to be able to cater to his and his daughter's needs. Travis was changing much faster than anyone could have ever imagined. He hated to think about it, but he was actually _growing up._

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><p>For dinner, they had simple macaroni and cheese. It was one of the very few things that Travis was able to cook without burning the apartment down.<p>

"Dad, Santa's real, right?" Althea asked while she was halfway through her meal. Travis pretended to look astounded. Another thing he enjoyed about spending Christmas with his daughter was the fact that he was able to express the child he still was inside. Even though he barely knew what Christmas was about until he was eighteen, he envied his daughter in the sense she was able to have these experiences that he could never have had growing up. So as any good parent should, he tried to keep Santa alive for as long as possible.

"Of course Althea, what makes you say otherwise?" The elder Stoll feigned shock horror at the mere thought Santa was simply a fake. Althea giggled as she took another bite out of her macaroni and cheese. Once she had swallowed what was in their mouth, she spoke up.

"Well, my camp counselor Dawson says that Santa isn't real," she replied, her pea green eyes shining at the thought. Inwardly, Travis made a note to go talk to Dawson. He was a seventeen year old camper who was one of Travis' half brothers. Dawson had the same impish grin that all offspring of Hermes processed, along with spiky blonde hair and mischievous dark eyes. Since he was the oldest all year round camper from Hermes, he was picked to be the camp counselor.

The summer that had just passed was Althea and Connor's son, Lysander's first ever camp at Camp Half Blood. The two Stoll brothers had told their children about their heritage, since both of them were offspring of two demigods. Travis was glad that Althea seemed pretty cool about it. He stayed at camp for the first two weeks to make sure that she was settling in, and boy, was she.

Like their fathers, both Althea and Connor loved to prank. They were quick to fit in with all the younger campers and other children of demigods and soon found themselves helping out with the many pranks that the Hermes cabin pulled off during the summer. Travis couldn't help but feel a large swell of pride stir in his chest as he saw his daughter running around with a bottle of whipped cream.

Althea also was quick to ease into the routine of Camp Half Blood. They had learnt, unlike her father, she excelled in shooting the bow and arrow, which made her good friends with a few of the Apollo campers. She loved the whole camp environment and it was the only thing she talked about for two months afterwards. It was suffice to say that she was completely and utterly excited for the upcoming summer.

"Well Dawson is lying. Santa is real," he reassured his daughter with such conviction his voice that he actually believed himself for a moment. Althea nodded, seemingly satisfied with her father's answer. He noted the empty plates that were in front of both of them and reached over to grab Althea's plate.

"How about we clean up and we start writing our wish lists?" he suggested as he stood up from the two person dining table with a wink. Althea nodded with genuine excitement and she scooted out of her chair.

"I'll get the crayons and paper!" She declared as she ran to her room. Travis laughed as he made his way to the kitchen. He couldn't help it. His daughter never failed to make his day.

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><p>In half an hour, both Althea and Travis were seated at the dining room table once again. A white A4 piece of paper was in front of each of them, with a tin of crayons within an arms' reach. Scrawled across the top of Althea's paper was 'My wish list' in large purple writing.<p>

"Let's do yours first," Travis suggested, picking out a simple brown crayon from the tin. He glanced at Althea as she looked at her paper thoughtfully. He had the overwhelming urge to pick her up and embrace her tightly. There were some days where he had glanced at his beautiful girl and couldn't believe he had raised such an amazing daughter.

When Althea had been born, Travis was only a cocky, irresponsible, immature eighteen-year-old son of Hermes. The elder Stoll had read every single parenting book he could get his hands on and even asked his boss Malcolm, who was a son of Athena for advice. Yet, when Althea arrived at his doorstep (literally) he couldn't believe that he was actually taking the job as a father.

Somehow, he managed to do it. The first two years consisted of over a thousand soiled nappies, at least 50 cartons of baby formula, various amounts of clothes and plenty of sleepless nights. Althea had started 'talking' at sixteen months. Most of it was just baby babble, but Travis was extremely proud to say that her first real word was 'dada'.

Travis could still remember the first day Althea had started to walk. She was one and a half and it was on a Friday night. Travis was totally shattered from a long day at work and all he wanted to do was sleep, but his daughter had been full of life. He grinned lazily as he watched her crawl around the floor of their apartment. The curly haired young man helped to lift his daughter to her feet with a twinkle in his eye.

"C'mon baby, you can walk," he cooed in a rather non-masculine manner as he held his daughter out at arms' length. She had been trying to walk for the past three weeks, but no avail. Travis had decided that this was the night she was going to do it.

Slowly and cautiously, he let go of her. Travis had lightning reflexes and knew that he would stop her from falling, if it was going to be the case. Althea wobbled around for a few seconds, her arms outstretched as if she was trying to balance herself.

And then she did it.

One step.

And then two.

Soon, she was making her way towards her overly delighted father, gurgling words that nobody could understand. Althea fell safely into her father's arms and Travis kissed her forehead.

"You did it baby," he whispered, his eyes shining. He was not the emotional type of bloke, but having Althea around had changed him in that aspect. He found himself grinning a whole lot more than he used to and had even shed a small tear when she had uttered the word 'dada.' And then it came.

"Love dada," Althea gurgled, putting her chubby fingers to her father's stubbly cheeks. Travis bit his tongue, but a solitary tear fell down his cheek and landed on Althea's pinky. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. The two words swum through his brain, each time it pulled on his heartstrings. He pulled his baby into a tight embrace.

"I love you so much Althea," he whispered in her ear. And he truly meant it.

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><p>Althea was impatiently tapping a crayon on the wooden table, snapping Travis out of his trance.<p>

"Are you okay daddy?" she asked her father with a worried look etched on her young features. Travis smiled and nodded, so grateful he had her in his life.

"Of course baby," he replied. "Now, what is the first thing on your list?" he glanced down to see what she had written. What he read nearly tore his heart in two.

In the same large scrawl, Althea had written 'mom' in a pink crayon with a askew heart drawn next to it. Travis gulped down the bile that was starting to rise in his throat. It was only one word, but it was enough to break Travis' heart as he thought of Katie Gardner, his daughter's mother, his only love.

She had left him eight years ago, leaving him to look after Althea. Travis had waited for some kind of contact from his former flame, but nothing came. He had wanted to tell Althea so much about her mother, but he didn't want to disappoint her, so he never talked about her. It hurt too much.

"It's all I want," Althea said, looking down at her paper proudly. The hope that was clearly etched in her voice was enough to want to make Travis cry. His daughter had full faith that her mother was going to come one day. As much as he wanted to keep his baby girl's dream alive, he couldn't let her live with false expectation.

"Althea, we need to talk," he said softly as he got up. Travis made his way to the couch and patted the empty seat next to him. Althea looked rather cautious as she made her way to her dad, uncertain of whether she had done something wrong. The only thing she had ever yearned for was her mother, but Katie had never came. She knew nothing about her, apart from her name. Althea crawled onto the brown couch and snuggled up against her father. Travis smiled as her dark tendrils tickled his nose. He put his arm around her in a protective manner.

"Talk about what daddy?" she asked, her dark green eyes looking up at him expectantly. It wasn't the way that Travis wanted to tell his daughter about Katie, but he didn't want to keep her hopes up.

"Althea, your mom isn't coming back," he told her in small voice. As soon as the words left his mouth, Althea's eyes started to water and he felt like the meanest person alive. He could feel his heart tearing into two as his daughter started to shake with grief under him. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea, he thought wryly in retrospect. The young girl sniffled underneath him, trying to stop the tears from flowing down her tanned cheeks.

"Why daddy?" she asked, her vulnerable tone like a stab to Travis' shattered heart. He pulled her into a tight embrace while Althea buried her head in her father's chest.

"I don't know Al," It was the only thing he could think of to say. He wished that he could say more. Althea wasn't the only person who wanted Katie back. There wasn't a day in his life where he wished that a certain daughter of Demeter wasn't by his side. He wished that she was there to see their daughter grow, to watch as her first steps turned into a run, to see her learn how to write, to teach her the ways of life. Yet, Katie was nowhere to be seen, and Travis didn't even know where in the world she was.

"Daddy, are you going to leave me like mommy did?" Althea asked after a few minutes of crying. Her father's red shirt was soaked with her tears, but Travis didn't mind in the slightest. He could feel his heart breaking all over again as he took in the scene unfolding in front of him. Althea's emerald eyes were rimmed with red, her usually soft curls now in a tangled mess. Her cheeks were tear-stained and her lips were pouted. Travis wished that he could do anything to see his daughter smiling like she was only ten minutes ago.

"Never Althea, I'm never going to leave you," he promised in the most genuine tone he could muster through his heartbreak. Althea's eyes started to tear up as she dug her face into her dad's neck. Travis was quick to murmur soothing words as he ran a hand through her tangled dark curls.

Althea had fallen asleep in his arms and he cautiously got up off the couch and quietly made his way to her room. Travis carried his daughter into her small room and laid her down in her bed, pulling up the green and white covered up to her small chin. She shifted slightly in her sleep, before turning to face the other side. He bent down to give her small kiss on the forehead, whispering 'I love you' softly in her ear before he left.

Katie wasn't going to be coming home for a long time, but Travis still kept a small spark of hope that he was going to see her again. It wasn't entirely for his benefit either, but also for his daughter. As he wrote his wish list in the dark night, the small lamp next to his bedside illuminated the paper. Travis scribbled 'To see Katie again' in his small, neat writing. He wasn't just wishing for himself, but for Althea as well. Wishing was the only thing he could do. And he was determined to make his daughter's wish list come true one day.

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><p><strong>AN:** So it's not the happiest Christmas story around(I can't write happy very well)...but reviews are appreciated!


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